A blast from the past

The question of whether rabbis should speak out on controversial national issues beyond the daled amot (four cubits) of our Jewish community is one that is being discussed and debated more and more frequently in many forums, including in this paper. Indeed, I have written about, and taken a strong stand on, this issue a number of times in this paper, most recently in “Still Disappointed by my Community.” And just two weeks ago, another opinion writer took a position very different from mine in “Rabbis need to cool it with ICE.”

As Kohelet taught millennia ago, ve-ein kol chadash tachat ha-shamesh – there is nothing new beneath the sun. (Eccl. 1:9) How true! At the Jewish Center 58 years ago, on Shabbat Parshat Vayakhel-Parah, March 23, 1968, Rabbi Norman Lamm preached on this very topic as it related to the Vietnam war. Excerpts from his sermon, “Vietnam and the Jewish Conscience,” with its carefully chosen, deeply thoughtful, and as always eloquent words on this complex and critically vital issue, are set forth below. The sermon is, I assure you, a most worthwhile read no matter where you come out on this question.

(I thank the Lamm Legacy and its director, my friend Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Sinensky, for preserving and disseminating R. Lamm’s timely and timeless teachings and values, including providing easy access to his sermons.)

Before I turn this column over to R. Lamm, however, I must make one thing very clear. In presenting his 1968 thoughts vis-à-vis the Vietnam war, I am not implying that R. Lamm would take the same position in 2026 vis-à-vis, for example, American immigration enforcement. With R. Lamm no longer here to speak for himself, it would be the height of arrogance for me to put words in his mouth that he did not say, or imply that he would hold a position that he did not expressly take. Nonetheless, his decades-old words continue to resonate today, and for many may be one data point, among others, in analyzing this issue. But those doing so must take personal responsibility for any conclusions they reach; they are not those of R. Lamm.

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We may stand on his shoulders, but it is our shoulders that must bear the weight of any conclusions and decisions we arrive at today.

And now to the relevant excerpts from his sermon.

“Ever since our country has slowly but surely been sucked into the vortex of the Vietnam involvement, I have refrained from any public comment on the war. This I have done for three reasons.

“First, I have always been apprehensive about reducing the pulpit to a platform, and making of the sermon a running journalistic commentary.

“Second, I have always considered Vietnam to be a technical political, diplomatic, and military problem, beyond any special competence that a rabbi can be expected to possess.

“Third, I have been annoyed at those clergymen, Jewish and non-Jewish, especially the former, for whom Vietnam and civil rights have become the totality of religion, as if there is nothing else in Judaism to speak of except to fulminate against the Vietnam war and to espouse the cause of civil rights.

“However, because of developing events, I have been forced to change my attitude, and I therefore feel impelled by conscience to address myself to the problem of Vietnam, though not without some hesitation.

“I am still opposed to any political pronouncements from the pulpit. But Vietnam has become one of the major moral problems of our times. True, it remains largely a political issue. Yet, there comes a time when certain issues expand beyond the narrow lines of politics and into the larger sphere of morality.

“A great part of our population is convinced that the Vietnam war is immoral. At the very least I believe that most of us here this morning are not enthusiastically certain of its morality….

“So if there is a moral problem involved, it becomes the responsibility of spiritual leaders to talk about it. For just as there is a danger of the pulpit sinking into politics, so is there an equal but opposite danger of the pulpit rising beyond the real world into pious platitudes of pleasant irrelevancies.

“But, one may ask, is it not still true that the Vietnam situation is too technical to offer a non-expert judgment? Yes, it is a complex issue. But it is not necessary to know every single detail of the situation before we react to it morally. Were that so, we should never be able to express the spiritual aspect of our personality….

“I acknowledge the right of every moral human being, Jew or non-Jew, to come to a conclusion different from mine. I most certainly recognize the right and even the responsibility of every Jew committed to Torah, rabbi or layman, to think through the matter independently, and if necessary, to oppose my interpretation with as much conviction, enthusiasm, and integrity with which I espouse it. Continued silence from this pulpit, however, is inexcusable. If our consciences are not activated now, if our moral traditions are not consulted now, we must remain mute and ineffective on a host of lesser problems which seem to monopolize our attention and drive out consideration of the more important issue.

“Furthermore, it so happens that most non-Orthodox Jewish organizations have declared themselves against our government’s Vietnam policy, as if implying that all Jews are doves. At the same time, a number of Orthodox organizations have, with varying degrees of intensity, pronounced in favor of the present Vietnam policy, as if the judgment of Torah clearly backs the administration. It is important, therefore, that individual rabbis, especially Orthodox rabbis, make clear where they stand, lest their silence be construed as consent to the prevailing opinion within their group.

“It is in this sense that I do two things: first, explain my hesitation in speaking out in the past, and second, beg your leave to be heard today on Vietnam.”

Whether you agree with Rabbi Lamm, or agree with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policy, or agree or disagree with me, one thing that all should be able to agree about is that our generation is impoverished by no longer being directly blessed with R. Lamm’s wisdom, insight, and advice on the issues that confront us today. We so desperately miss the unique voice of this rabbi, teacher, thinker, and darshan, par excellence. Chaval Al DeAvdin VeLaw Mishtakhin (B. San. 111a, see Rashi ad loc.) – alas for the great person who has passed away and no replacement for him can be found.

Joseph C. Kaplan of Teaneck, a regular columnist for the Jewish Standard and the New Jersey Jewish News and a Rockower Award recipient, is the author of “A Passionate Writing Life: From ‘In my Opinion’ to ‘I’ve Been Thinking.’” He is a retired lawyer; he and his wife, Sharon, have been blessed with four wonderful daughters and six delicious grandchildren.